2014, I hope will be my “Year of Gen­tle Mak­ing”. I have a few things planned, but not set in stone to reflect art­fully upon my expe­ri­ence. With a few more prayers, rest and recov­ery I hope soon to be back in the stu­dio in a mean­ing­ful way. My wish is for every­one to take some time for them­selves, to be in good health and have as much time with your fam­ily and friends as you pos­si­bly can.

Here are a few sug­ges­tions to the province and Alberta Health Ser­vices to avoid this in the future:
Put ade­quate back-up plans in place to ensure no can­cer patient’s treat­ment is delayed. Zero tol­er­ance.
Empower hos­pi­tal admin­is­tra­tion to ade­quately address emer­gency cir­cum­stances with patients in a timely and orga­nized man­ner. “I can’t tell you the secret that I know.” does not help or instill con­fi­dence in the sys­tem.
Deliver lead­er­ship and cri­sis train­ing to address these con­cerns.
Improve com­mu­ni­ca­tions regard­ing health care in emer­gency sit­u­a­tions.
If chem­i­cal trans­port isn’t pos­si­ble due to haz­ardous mate­r­ial restric­tions, a plan for how patients can get added to treat­ment ros­ters in Cal­gary or the near­est deliv­ery site to their location.

When the real­ity of life is too much, as human beings we have our imag­i­na­tion, our made-up, make-believe worlds to help us nav­i­gate the unimag­in­able. For artists and cre­atives, I can only think that we are some­how super-charged with imag­i­na­tions — for the best, and for the worst. Here’s how I’m nav­i­gat­ing these days.

After being diag­nosed with breast can­cer just before Christ­mas, we’ve had a roller coaster of emo­tion and action in the house­hold, com­bin­ing doctor’s vis­its, show open­ings, Leighton Colony res­i­den­cies, tests and surgery. As the say­ing goes.…the show must go on, and it did.…on all fronts.

It’s New Year’s Eve day, and I should be reflect­ing on my past year, review­ing the accom­plish­ments and events, inspir­ing oth­ers to rally and focus their tal­ents, sup­port­ing the Fab Four and #IdleNoMore, round-dancing at a local mall, get­ting big can­vasses moved into a Leighton Colony Res­i­dency at The Banff Cen­tre, prep­ping for the Gwaii Haanas exhi­bi­tion in Feb­ru­ary and being excited about CAMP, my first solo show at a pub­lic gallery.….but I can’t. I have to focus on me and fight the bat­tle of my life and advo­cate HARD through a gov­ern­ment system.